If random people were asked for one word to describe the Christians they know, what would they say? Would it be ‘kind’, ‘compassionate’ and ‘loving’ or perhaps ‘judgmental’ and ‘intolerant’.
This question was asked by a student,
“Why is it that Christians oppose ‘racists’ who are antagonistic to people of other races, but you yourselves are antagonistic to homosexuals. Isn’t that incongruous? Are you not being judgmental and intolerant?”
The basis of morality
Before answering this we need to understand the bases for a society’s morality. Our word ‘morality’ comes from the Latin word moralis which means “proper behaviour of a person in society." This Latin word that literally means "pertaining to manners," and was coined by Cicero ("De Fato," II.i) to translate the Greek word ethikos, from which we derive our word ‘ethics’.
Societies generally have one of three bases for their morality.
a. Theonomous – the teaching that their laws come directly from God. This is the basis for Orthodox Jewish and for Muslim societies. God has said what is right and wrong and that is the end of the matter, everyone must be compelled to live that way. The religious police ensure the rules are kept. The problems are that different gods say different things and some laws are clearly unjust.
b. Heteronomous – here the society’s customs are controlled by a force outside the individual. Thus in Communist and Fascist countries the head of the state and his secret police control the actions of people in that society.
c. Autonomous – This means that an independent people can decide their own morality. However some go further and consider that all individuals should be free to decide for themselves how they live.
It is apparent that all these systems have problems. There is, in practice, considerable similarity between the ‘Theonomous’ and ‘Heteronomous’ systems. The mullahs of Islamic states use force to enforce what they consider to be right just as the Nazis did. People do dislike being told how to live by unjust rulers. However societies that have an ‘Autonomous’ basis find that pressure groups constantly arise to change the status quo and the accepted morality can rapidly change.
In democratic societies we accept the ‘Autonomous’ principle. However there is a real danger that those who have some power to change society’s morals, such as the media and politicians, do all they can to do so. However when the problems associated with the new morality appear, and people oppose their views, there is a tendency for these advocates to shift to a ‘Heteronomous’ position and use officious means to prevent any further change. It occurred in the Third Reich with their anti-Semitic programme. This is now being seen in the acceptability of homosexuality practices. Two generations ago any sex outside marriage was widely condemned in western societies. Premarital sex then became accepted, then extramarital sex and then homosexual sex. Paedophilia has become more widespread though rightly it is still condemned, largely because of the damage it does to children. Although sex with animals is still off limits there will be no logical reason to condemn it. Similarly today many individuals feel that they should be allowed to live as they please in other areas, so long as they are not obviously hurting someone. The media is strongly backing this ‘individual freedom’. The use of drugs is increasingly being accepted on the basis that people should be allowed to live as they want although it is both harmful to individuals and expensive for society. Without good reasons being given, there seems little to limit rapid changes in society’s morals.
Evidence is frequently withheld about the effects of different lifestyles to prevent people coming to obscure what really goes on. It is not well understood that the vast majority of practising homosexuals are promiscuous. One study examined the sexual profiles of 2,583 older homosexual men found that only 2.7 percent of these men claimed to have had sex with one partner only. Another study has concluded that there is promiscuity even in long-term stable male homosexual relationships,
"All couples with a relationship lasting more than 5 years have incorporated some provision for outside sexual activity in their relationships."
The ‘Gay Liberation’ movement the 1970s resulted in an explosion of homosexual activity. The director of the New York City Department of Health described the situation as follows:
"By their own reports, many men had large numbers of sexual partners annually, often numbering in the hundreds and even in the thousands. Frenetic casual and anonymous sex was widespread among homosexual and bisexual men. Bathhouses, back rooms of bars and clubs, and other public settings such as erotic bookstores and movie theatres were, in effect, wide open...these practices and more were accompanied by extremely high rates of sexually transmitted diseases and set the scene for the rapid transmission of HIV once it appeared in the late 1970s. Rates of rectal and oral gonorrhoea in males soared..."
Should people speak out?
Do you remember the ridicule Mary Whitehouse received when she stood up against the loosening of sexual morality in the media? Today, people who oppose what they consider to be wrong, such as extra-marital sexual practices, are derided. A person who speaks out against the practice of homosexuality is rapidly called ‘homophobic’ and ‘narrow-minded’. They are now liable to lose their jobs and to be publicly ridiculed. Israel Folau, the brilliant Australian rugby player has recently had his contracts rescinded because he spoke out, warning people by quoting the Bible that immoral behaviour brings God’s judgment. It will be interesting to see whether the Australian courts consider his right to free speech has been infringed. Recently a Christian friend expressed his belief that homosexual practices were wrong when relaxing in a Health Centre sauna. The following day he was visited by the police enquiring whether he was ‘homophobic’. These are the oppressive techniques ‘Heteronomous’ societies use.
The question is whether a public statement of beliefs is wrong.
The International Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, which has become normative in international law, states,
Article 18
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Unfortunately it has not always been followed. Say something that the rulers of many countries or organisations disapprove of, and you can be heavily persecuted.
Jesus himself was persecuted and eventually killed for talking about subjects that the authorities disliked. Should people be warned that persistence in alcoholism, homosexual acts, adultery, lying, stealing and rejection of God means that such people will face God’s judgment? Should the careers of those who warn others be killed off because they speak out about their concerns? Is free speech being killed off? Should gagging clauses be used to prevent people speaking out? Questions need to be asked as to why some people hate such warnings. Jesus said,
“The world . . . hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” John 7:7
The Christian position
Christians are convinced that God has not only created this world but has entered into it, to enable people to become members of his kingdom by voluntarily accepting him as their Saviour and commander. It is faith in him that saves us. Then, because we are members of his family, we want to live in a way that pleases him. This is one effect the Holy Spirit has in all Christians. We share what God’s word teaches and then we all have the responsibility to follow Jesus’ wishes. A Christian is a person who loves and worships Jesus and he reminds us repeatedly what the evidence of saving faith is,
“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” John 14:15
“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” John 14:23
The first sin described in the Bible was when Adam and Eve decided to eat of the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil’, the tree that God had said was forbidden to them. Surely this is saying that God alone can decide what is right and wrong. Although he has given us great freedom, in moral matters our role is to willingly obey our creator.
We also have been given God’s commission to teach others around us how they may be saved from the consequences of their rebellion against God by accepting that Jesus is their Lord and Saviour. Subsequently we need to explain how God wants his people to live. Our message to the world is firstly one of God’s judgment, followed by the news about God’s only remedy, and then and only then, how he wants his people to live.
It is a pointless task for churches to try and impose Christ’s morality on a society unless it persuades them who Christ is first.
The Bible teaches that God made all people, of all nationalities and languages, in his image so there can be no place for discrimination against people of different backgrounds or practices. All people are sacred to God and therefore must be respected. However that is not the same as saying that certain behaviours should not be criticised.
The Bible, that Jesus confirmed to be God’s word to his people, teaches us that God can find the behaviour of individuals evil to him and he will eventually judge every individual on how they have behaved compared to his standards. It makes no difference what our nationality or religion is. All people fall short of God’s standard. Jesus taught,
“What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside a man and defile him.” Mark 7:20-22
Jesus’ apostle, Paul, wrote similarly,
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters not adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Paul wrote to the Ephesian church,
“For of this you can be sure: no immoral, impure or greedy person – such a man is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Ephesians 5:5
God teaches his people in the Old Testament that sexual activity should only be between a man and his wife. It teaches that homosexual acts are repugnant to God,
“Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” Leviticus 18:22
“If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable.” Leviticus 20:13
The Bible makes it clear that it should be inconceivable for a person committed to Christ to behave in a way that dishonours him. God’s law is given to remind us of our great need of forgiveness. Paul makes another list of actions that God disapproves of when writing to Timothy,
“We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for law-breakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practising homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers – and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.” 1 Timothy 1:9-11
Jesus went even further,
“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27
Who can stand under such a judgment of our thoughts? The point of the Sermon on the Mount is to show each of us how far we have fallen and how much we need God’s forgiveness to have any hope of heaven. The only way to gain this forgiveness and acceptance is to accept the gift of ‘his righteousness’ that Christ longs to give freely to all who become his people.
The Bible teaches that marriage is sacred to God and must be protected. This surely means that all those who want to live God’s way should be discouraged from engaging in sexual activity until they are married, as all sexual activity is addictive. The pragmatic evidence is strong, those who have learned self-control do have stronger family lives.
The Bible is clear that to be antagonistic to people because of their race or colour is wrong, but it is our duty to say that God finds the actions of some individuals abhorrent. The authority for saying this is that this is what the bible, god’s word to all people, teaches.
Philosophers have tried hard to find a way to derive ethics for society without God. Without God everything is in flux, it is only the realisation that God himself is moral and that humans have been made in his image that the pieces of the jig-saw come together. Right behaviour is what the God of love approves of. He does give us individual freedom but wants us to use this by choosing to go his way.
The philosopher, Nietzsche, derided such people as “odious windbags of progressive optimism, who think it is possible to have Christian morality without Christian faith.” In “Twilight of the Idols” he wrote,
“They are rid of the Christian God, and now believe all the more firmly that they must cling to Christian morality . . . when one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality from under one’s feet.”
Dostoevsky wrote in ‘The Brothers Karamozov’,
“Is there no God? Then everything is permitted.”
This pressure to leave God out of our thinking is very dangerous for ours or any society. The writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn has concluded that the problems we face in the West are all caused by one basic error,
“You have forgotten God.”
In the opening chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans he describes the effects seen in a society that has turned its back on God. These were seen in Roman society, which subsequently disintegrated, and are being repeated today. This whole section is well worth studying but the following is one section that describes what can happen when God turns away from a society.
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. . . Because of this God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.” Romans 1:21-27
Relationships within a diverse society
There is a great difference between loving a person and condoning wrong behaviour. Christians are called to love our neighbour as ourselves but to oppose what God says to be wrong, especially amongst God’s people. Churches must really welcome people of all races, beliefs and lifestyles. Any sinner, including a practising homosexual, must be welcome in churches where they can hear about the gospel that God longs for all people to enter his kingdom. After all, we all have or had our own secret weaknesses and sins. All people must hear God’s warning that to live independently of God will be bad for them and bad for their society and need to hear God’s word on how he wants his people to live. He cannot condone sin in any of us.
Yet there is great pressure on people not to express traditional Christian views and the reasons why we should uphold these. A parliamentary committee, chaired by Harriet Harman has expressed serious concerns about barriers to free speech in universities, warning that ‘safe-space’ policies on campuses are “problematic” and often lead to the marginalisation of minority groups’ views. Harman said: “Freedom of speech within the law should mean just that, and it is vital in universities. Evidence to the joint committee on human rights showed that there is a problem of inhibition of free speech in universities.
The social media can now anonymously act as a ‘lynch mob’ and destroy anyone whose views are disapproved of.
The way Christians influence the wider society they live in should be by teaching people the ‘Word of God’ and giving them the evidence that the Bible is indeed from God. It is up to all individuals to decide whether they will live under God’s authority or refuse to do so. This choice has eternal consequences. The church’s job is to pass on to everyone what God teaches in his Word, to tell them how they can make a new start with God and how they can then live to please him. People must be warned that to ‘do what is right in their own eyes’ will eventually bring God’s judgment on them.
Christians must learn again to love others, whatever their race, religion or manner of living and stop tut-tutting about other’s behaviour. Jesus had very high moral standards, truth mattered to him yet he was also full of ‘grace’.
“All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.” Luke 4:22
Consequently we, his followers must show all people the practical love of Christ, which will include sharing with them all that Jesus taught. It is their dreadful right to refuse to accept, in spite of all the evidence, what Jesus taught about himself and his mission but we must still show them the respect that is their right as human beings as they have also been created by the same heavenly Father.
